Sales in Leuven

Different from a short cycle: the goal of a first conversation is not a quote but a place in next year's evaluation program. We work on a longer horizon, with follow-up that adds something substantive such as a test result, a changing standard or a reference application, and with a pipeline weighted by stage. Just as important is keeping parallel contact with the engineer who runs the tests and the person who controls the budget.

We build the commercial machine that serves those markets from Leuven, and we join the conversations ourselves where that helps. What we will not do is pretend a Flemish team replaces a local German or American one: those markets need the language, the time zone and references that carry weight there. In practice we set up qualification and follow-up here, and we decide together at what point a local representative or partner returns more.

By selecting differently. The Leuven labor market is full of technical talent and short on commercial talent with technical depth, so the classic hunt for an experienced account manager returns very little. We more often look at people with a technical background and a commercial instinct, and build the selling skill through training. That takes more coaching in the first year, but the conversation with a research department then actually happens on substance.